BHOPAL: Despite the coronavirus scare, a 70.27 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Tuesday's byelections to 28 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, an official said.
The average voting percentage in these constituencies in the 2018 Assembly polls was 72.93.
A total of 355 candidates, including 12 ministers, are in the fray in the bypolls.
Polling began at 7 am on Tuesday with COVID-19 prevention protocols in place and continued till 6 pm.
"A total of 70.27 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots as per the final figures," a senior election official told PTI.
The BJP currently has 107 MLAs in the 230-member house and needs to win eight seats to attain a simple majority.
Effective strength of the house is 229 as one Congress MLA resigned last month, but bypolll for that seat is yet to be held.
The Congress' tally has been reduced to 87 after the resignation of total 26 MLAs since March this year.
The by-elections were necessitated after earlier resignations of 25 Congress MLAs and deaths of three sitting legislators.